BWW Reviews: LES MISERABLES at Nashville's Tennessee Performing Arts Center

As powerfully moving as it has ever been, Les Miserables - the epic musicalization of Victor Hugo's classic novel by Claude-Michel Schonberg and Alain Boublil - returns to the Tennessee Performing Arts Center for an eight-performance stand this week, in a visually commanding , artfully reimagined and dynamic production celebrating the show's 25^th anniversary on American stages.

Beautifully sung by an exceptional cast (many of whom were either very young children or not even born when the show premiered on Broadway in 1986), acted with conviction, and sumptuously designed by some of the theater's leading artisans, Les Miserables retains its sheer power to transport and transform its audiences, largely thanks to the memorable score by Schonberg and Boublil (with English lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer, and additional material by James Fenton and featuring the classic orchestrations augemented by new ones by Chris Jahnke) and the direction of Laurence Connor and James Powell, who have crafted a reinterpretation of the beloved story that is at once soaring and overwhelming, yet somehow intimate and personal.

The show's timeless score, sung so beautifully by the ensemble and performed so laudably and capably by the production's orchestra under the baton of conductor Robert Billig, has undergone some minor, almost imperceptible, changes and yet is as dramatically soaring as you probably recall, a flood of emotions sure to sweep over you. Rest assured, you will find yourself humming the anthemic "Do You Hear the People Sing" or "One Day More," the haunting "Bring Him Home" or "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables," or the heartrending  "I Dreamed A Dream" or "On My Own," perhaps even the clever and amusing "Master of the House" - the score is filled to overflowing with signature tunes that fill your mind with melody and your heart with hope. Frankly, it is impossible to pick one song over the other as a favorite, so abundantly mesmerizing is the score and so superb are the performances in this production.

The talented cast, led by Ron Sharpe as the saintly Jean Valjean and Andrew Varela as his arch-nemesis, Inspector Javert, bring all the characters to life with total commitment, ensuring that audiences who have made Les Miserables a revered part of musical theater history will take to the newly reimagined production just as warmly as new audiences for whom a connection to the show has existed due to televised concerts and the ubiquitous cast albums that have proliferated throughout the last 25 years.

Loyal audiences can rest assured that the story's impact (which has been felt since Hugo's book was first published in 1862 - the timing of the book's publication resulted in its being a favorite of soldiers fighting in the American Civil War, which makes this national touring production during the Civil War Sesquicentennial year even more prescient and timely) remains as potent as ever, with the story made even more immediate and accessible by the staging and direction. If you find yourself unmoved by the tale of the heroic Jean Valjean and his efforts to find redemption and to right the wrongs of his errant past, then you must be made of stone. In fact, the penultimate scene in Act Two, during which Valjean is close to death and has written down his last confession to be read by his beloved Cosette after his demise - though clearly manipulative in its overt sentimentality - left me emotionally drained yet inspired and uplifted. And when the spirits of Fantine and Eponine appear onstage to escort Valjean to heaven, I was completely done in.

Among the many changes envisioned by the creative and artistic team - and brought to life onstage - is the set itself, designed by Matt Kinley and inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo. Gone is the iconic turntable that helped to set the original production apart from others on Broadway at the time. And while you might miss the cinematic sweep of the stage's revolve, Kinley's new scenic design creates a vision that is somehow more accessible and, in so many ways, presents a more traditional concept for a proscenium stage. Coupled with exquisite projections depicting the musical's various settings in 19^th century France (the scenes in the famous sewers of Paris are particularly vivid), the gorgeous lighting design of Paule Constable (who bathes the stage in golden hues that are moody and evocative, giving much of the production a sepia-toned and more romantic feel), and the period-perfect costume design of both Andreane Neofitou and Christine Rowland, Kinley's depiction of the slums of Paris, the factory where Fantine toils, Valjean's Paris pied-a-terre and, perhaps more importantly, the barricades upon which the students do battle in the 1832 Paris Uprising, are well conceived and exceptionally realized.

Jeffrey Ellis is a Nashville-based writer, editor and critic, who's been covering the performing arts in Tennessee for more than 25 years. He is the recipient of the Tennessee Theatre Association's Distinguished Service Award for his coverage of theatre in the Volunteer State and was the founding editor/publisher of Stages, the Tennessee Onstage Monthly. He is a past fellow of the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center and is the founder/executive producer of The First Night Honors, held during Labor Day Weekend, which honor oustanding theater artists in Tennessee in recognition of their lifetime achievements and includes The First Night Star Awards and the Most Promising Actors. Midwinter's First Night, held the first Sunday in January after New Year's Day, honors outstanding productions and performances throughout the state. Further, Ellis directed the Nashville premiere of La Cage Aux Folles, The Last Night of Ballyhoo and An American Daughter, as well as award-winning productions of Damn Yankees, Company, Gypsy and The Rocky Horror Show, with Ellis honored by The Tennessean as best director of a musical for both Company and Rocky Horror.

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